Common is the Xmas guy for the lovely hiphop peace love Gap commercial.
Is this commercialism?
Sure is.
Selling out?
I think not and it is cool to watch a musician I admire be the centerpiece of the Gap's holiday joy.
Common, yeah.
November 2006 Archives
"Why would I give out my cell? I don't need a guy I met at a bar one night calling me every day for the next two weeks begging me to go out. I want to filter out the people I don't need to have contact with."
--Singer Airin McClain, 23, speaking to the NYTimes in a story about the rising use of of anonymous third party calling services as a new phone screening tool and communications tool now that everyone's cell phone number is part of their persistent ID.
Jonathan Safran Foer: My life as a dog (in NYC) --lovely essay for pet owners everywhere
NYTimes: IAC plans AskCity, new local service
USA Today asks what geeks would do with newspapers. Answers--nothin' you ain't heard before, but amusing
Who has time for this? VC writes on the theme of how start-ups need to get big cheap
emergic has more to say on this topic
"Web 2.0 is nothing more than an aftermarket for Google. Startups slicing little bits of Google's P/E ratio, acting as sales reps for Google ads, and getting great multiples for the revenue they generate by fostering the creation of new UGC to place ads on. When Google crashes, that's the end of that, no more wave to ride, no more aftermarket, Bubble Burst 2.0. And the flip of this is also true -- as long as Google's stock stays up, no bubble burst."
--Dave Winer, Scripting News
Deep inside Silicon Valley, working at a high tech company, it's easy to think everyone is constantly online, reading blogs, podcasting, bookmarking and what have you. After 5 days in New York, with people who are as information hungry and of the moment as everyone I know back home, I've formed some observations on the educated general populace at large:
Everyone does online dating, and if they haven't they're thinking about it because it worked well for people they know. Over the holiday, at least 5 people either told me about their online dating experiences, asked me for tips on making online dating work better for them, and/or told me about how their good friend had met someone online and --surprise!--gotten married. Yep, it's here to stay.
Many people over 40 don't really pay attention to social networks, unless their kids have a MySpace page, they're in the music business or they're interested in (viral) marketing. The low resonance of social networks for the friends and family I interacted with other the holiday was fascinating. While in Silicon Valley my friends debate the relative value--and feature sets--of one SN compared to another--just about no one I encountered over my NYC holiday had much to say about connecting virtually, using online to help plan offline events, or even using LinkedIn for job hunting.
Everyone gets blogs--they are the new magazine article/press release and promotional footage, all rolled into one. Everyone I met knew all about blogging, read blogs, and had considered starting one(even if no one did.) One friend--who's the boss of a media company-- said "I am going to ask everyone at work who wants to have a blog--I'm already planning mine for Jan. 1."
YouTube is the new Candid Camera meet the digital public library for everyone under 18, and the buzz is loud enough that the grown-ups are listening. When I asked my nephews (8-13) where they went to find music videos, TV shows like South Park and movie clips, they all said YouTube. As I helped them search for legal clips to watch, they had no problem downloading files and clicking so the videos went full screen. We got together with a bunch of 9 year olds and they were all experienced watching video and film clips on their machines!
I pay alot more attention to bloggers' voices than do my friends and family in New York. I was going nuts for those few days I had trouble going online and it wasn't because I wanted to read my email, it's because I've grown addicted(this week proved that) to the conversations on the blogs. Techmeme, tailrank, digg and bloglines are my information crack and while bloggers' voices might be just alot of extra data to my NYTimes reading family and friends, you know what? I gotta have'em.
Busy human beings, are, by definition, fast followers. For many adults, the biggest problem they have is lack of time. This means that every new technology innovation, every new social media tool, is tried at the expense of something else. For many people this means experimentation has few rewards--even if they like the cool new tools--they probably won't have time to use them anyway. So why not wait until the value of the coolest, most useful new things is dramatically clear and let the rest dwindle away?
I didn't realize till this minute that wi-fi access can be different in every room of a NYC apartment. I've learned this interesting fact after 1.5 days of no online access in the Bronx, a problem that a) amuses my family no end and b) makes me realize how wired/California/techie I am (as in I had to explain that my life happens online and I need access).
Tonight, desperate to check email, look at blogs, post, whatever, I've carried the laptop from room to room in the apartment and discovered that my nephew's bedroom is the spot with access....the only spot.
Guess where I am now as the nephew plays with Pokemon cards? Yep, at the little table, sitting on the little chair, saving my access to the universe.
I'll be in here all night, I predict, coming back from another visit to family down the block to go online once again, savoring what I haven't had for the past 24-36....a reliable (and free) wi-fi link.
It's Turkey Day and I am in New York visiting family. It's cold and rainy outside, but warm and steamy in here, where there's a marathon cooking session underway--roasted brussel sprouts and chestnuts, free-range turkey, pumpkins/squash/pear pudding, cranberry biscuits--my sister doesn't hold back, and I am the kitchen assistant.
Back home in California, it's warm and sunny(I hear) and people I love are at their own holidays with friends and family, cooking/eating/talking and, hopefully, feeling the joy this season is supposed to bring.
For some of us, the happiness of the holiday always has a bit of sadness too--for people who are gone, relationships or friendships ended, dreams lost. And for everyone who's about to be dumped into the holiday shopping frenzy (that would be everyone not living off the grid), major issues about money spent, time off, and all sorts of truly silly stuff are no doubt about to set in.
I wish everyone this holiday season the joy of appreciating themselves, their friends and family, and the good fortune they have--I feel very grateful for my own life--the family, friends, and interesting ideas--and for the chance to be here in New York with family and friends whom I love.
Happy holiday, everyone!
"I started out with this idea of finding shoes for my girlfriend and hotties on HotorNot for me. It's easy to shift from recommending shoes to humans."
-- PayPal and Slide founder, quoted in a Fortune story on Silicon Valley entrepeneurs (in case you wondered if there really was another bubble) while explaining the connection between social networks, photo similarity recognition and shopping, the about to become the topic of the moment topic.
(Via Dave Evans)
"As one of the web?s venerable veterans, Yahoo is indeed facing a formidable set of challenges, but we should all take a moment to be clear on the fact that it would be a much worse world for all of us little startups if the big purple giant was to disappear. "
--The tabbo bloggers, reflecting on the big purple peanut butter fuss
Working backwards: Everyone who photographed the wonderful and amazing laughing squid party on sat night must still be asleep because there's little up--but the party rocked.
Of course, showing up in a white limo with a bunch of friends on Utah Street only added to the fun. As did the partying at Asia SF earlier, and the very silly bridal bash for Ponzi--and Chris.
Thank you -- Maryam-- for being such a great friend! And Robert--for being such a wonderful host.
"So how does Bix fit into Yahoo!'s strategy? Bix, which was founded in January, is a young startup --not unlike Flickr, del.icio.us, Upcoming.org, and Jumpcut when we acquired them. All represented emerging social media trends with great potential. Imagine where Bix's creativity could go once we scale it to over half a billion people worldwide. For example, we're currently looking into possible synergies with things like Yahoo! Groups, Yahoo! Messenger, Yahoo! Video and our entertainment properties."
--Yahoo VP of Product Strategy Bradley Horowitz, writing on the Yahoo! blog
Susan sez: Jumpcut and Bix are both fun, useful platforms --with cool tools--that users can have a great time with-and that will fit well into the Y! portfolio. The challenge at Yahoo, IMHO, is to aggressively learn from--and take advantage of integrating--these young companies, as well as give them more resources to grow on their own. Congrats on these neat acquisitions.
One of my favorite people who doesn't live nearby is in town this weekend-- Ponzi, Chris Pirillo's fiance and an amazing person in her own right. I'm so psyched about seeing her this weekend--it has been too long--and there will be other great friends around as well--so this will be a treat.
Also excited about Scott Beale's Laughing Squid party, which I really want to go to. Scott is one of the truly good people I know, both in word and deed--he's a supporter of the arts, friend to the alternative, web hoster, superb photographer--and makes it all look easy.
Hopefully, there will also be some walking, bike-riding and maybe a little wine-tasting involved-and of course, that project I have to do for work....definitely spending time on that this weekend as well.
So after having my own little Nick Douglas is out at Valleywag snark attack on a guy from NY coming in to help the thing till local talent is secured, I have to say Nick Denton's version of Valleywag is not only nicely grown up--it is irrestible.
Where Nick Douglas was college boy snarky, sniggering or cute, Denton as writer seems to have the assidious truffle-hunting, old files rummaging obsessiveness of the best journalists, but with the slightly chillier perspective of a lawyer, banker or economist.
It's going to be interesting to see how the new Valleywag impacts Techcrunch.
Mike Arrington,s got his own voice with a focus on new companies, trends, and deep dives into sectors, Nick's take on SV is economic, dry, and right on focus, digging into the heart of news stories for the tastier core.
Yes, Denton rocks n this latest turn--and he gets a big wet kiss(only virtual) for showing everyone he can not only kickstart it, he can turn it turn it out.
Nick, hire somebody as incisive as you to write Valleywag, please.
"'You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours' is an economy of its own."
--Projo blogger and editor Sheila Lennon, commenting on Shelly Power's post on the unfairness of techmeme in selecting blogs to highlight.
(Susan sez: I don't think techmeme is unfair, but this is a great quote.)
The NYTimes has repaid bloggerdom 's love of primary materials with its publication of an internal Gawker memo from editorial director Lockhart Steele to the Gawker Media editorial team, detailing why Valleywag scribe Nick Douglas was let go.
Lock's memo is a masterpiece of detail, outlining an editorial and cultural mismatch that may be as much about NY vs Silicon Valley as Nick Douglas being too much of an edge case for Gawker(that seems hard to believe).
Susan sez: It's a kick that the Times would run with this story, and another kick to imagine a presumably at large Nick Douglas going on to some other cool venture such as a podcasting company, a very special sort of social network, a new division of a big portal ( MSN, perhaps) or an (different) media property. Either way, no doubt Nick will land on his (talented) feet, joining up with someone whose new start up wins a spot at the next Web 3.0 poetry slam, followed by mucho VC funding.
Paid Content (and others) have the news that Jon Miller is out at AOL and Randy Falco, President and COO of the NBC Universal Television Group, will be Chairman and CEO of AOL LLC.
The PC folk ring the changes on this pretty smoothly--the emphasis now is on maximizing ad revenue, Falco will be Bewkes' man, etc., Miller gets credit for hanging in there.
This is pretty major stuff and my guess is that in 12 months the executive team at AOL will have a vastly different look than it does today as the change in operating styles becomes the day to day reality.
Jason Calcanis reflects some of that same belief in a post he did today about Miller's role as his mentor, writing "I've gotten a bunch of press folks contacting me about my future at AOL now that Ted Leonsis and Jon Miller are no longer with the company. I've got nothing to say about that right now, so consider this an official "no comment."
Susan sez: I think Falco will button AOL up in a way that hasn't been possible for the past 5 years, but I am also curious what Jon Miller will do next. Miller inherited a company whose last CEO was a former radio executive, and whose SVPs all were worth millions--at a time when the business was tanking. He clearly did a good job engaging his team, retaining and promoting senior talent, and making hard choices. But, you know, the challenge with AOL--like many big companies--is making it move fast enough the new direction--and new blood should speed that process along.
Just read that Reuters, one of the most progressive and there *old media* companies(but one that truly does get it, inhmo), has invested $7MM in Pluck, creators of BlogBurst, a blog syndication platform and business and in related tools and services.
Two of the reasons this interests me are personal--first of all, when I was consulting, we worked with the Pluck team on developing and fine-tuning Blogburst; second of all, in working on that project, I became convinced that Dave Panos, Eric Newman and their teams were customer-focused in a way that would truly lead to product value and success (as it did).
The third reason, though, is that its another data point to show how fully blogging--around since before 2000--is entering the mainstream and becoming an integrated experience with other tools, media, and user generated content platforms.
On one level, yeah, it is jumping the shark, on another, it is one more proof point of the platform's value--and the value of all the posters' blogs power.
So, 24 hours of reading Nick Denton's Valleywag (as in he let the guy helming the site, Nick Douglas, go) and a couple of things are clear:
- Nick would like Valleywag to be a lot closer to Bambi Francisco on Marketwatch style financial investigative journalism
- He's got a good eye for finding those kinds of items
- Given that the Valley has some journalists trolling away for these types of items (think VentureBeat, Matt Marshall, Tom Formeski, Good Morning Silicon Valley etc.), Nick's take may be a bit, uh, redundant.
- And, of course there is the issue that Big Nick is writing this thing from 3,000 miles away, about people who he's probably met in passing, once, like at a Ryze party back in the day.
I pray not.
Valleywag canned is too close to Valleywag spam. Yawn.
"The web of the future will be much like the web today, only more people, better applications, more opportunities to be inundated with unwelcome information, a lot less privacy, and a lot more interactivity. Some will look at it and think back to now with nostalgia. Others will continue to have their eyes focused forward, even if doing so causes them to miss much of what's good now.
One other thing: if the trend I'm seeing at techmeme and elsewhere continues, the future web won't have a place for women. "
-- Shelley Powers, commenting on John Markoff's NYTimes piece that, among other things, called the Semantic Web Web 3.o, a phrase I would like to avoid.
Mary Hodder, friend and founder of video search/community service, Dabble, wants to make sure some folks get the facts right. Dave W comments that Dabble is like flickr, and Mary says nay.
Mary's kicker:
"Dabble launched 3 months ago, and is doing just fine. Flickr launched 2.5 years ago, Podshow and Odeo launched well over a year, and while I don't know their stats or situation, I would also imagine that they are in different spots as well, though without knowing or asking I won't assume they are doing well or not. Since Dave didn't ask us where we are after 3 months, I'm assuming he didn't ask them either.
Regardless, I want to be sure that we are understood as a video search with a social community around search and are doing just fine, thanks."
Any more questions, anyone?
The NYTimes has an article on Munjal Shah's implementation of photo similarity search as a shopping tool, with the headline Shopping Site Offers a Way to Raid a Celebrity'Closet. This, of course, is Like.com, the newly launched incarnation of Riya's photo algorithms, which apparently doesn't succeed in precisely identifying a person you know across thousands of photos, but works great on items--and people--that look like others.
Bob Tedeschi, the reporter, writes: "Like.com represents a fall-back plan of sorts for Mr. Shah, who originally used the technology behind Like.com to create Riya, which helps users organize their digital photos. That service has been popular among users and investors, having attracted $19.5 million from venture capitalists including Bay Partners and Leapfrog Ventures, but Mr. Shah said it had a doomed business plan, because there were not enough ways to make money from it."
Susan sez: The picture slays me, but I admire the realization that these super cool tools need commercial applications--and hope Munjal and his team generate a few more interesting products off their algo.
"The wise magazine will enable its community to speak among themselves. And it will also find ways to extract and share the wisdom of its crowd.
(snip)
To gather a community together today and then not enable them to be a community is a waste or worse: It could be fatal to the brand. "
--Media guru and social media visionary Jeff Jarvis, who just keeps getting it right.
(Go, Jeff)!
"People in their teens and 20s feel more comfortable using a text message to communicate something serious than having to confront someone. It is instant gratification - and delayed mortification. At some point they will have to yell at each other."
--Delly Tamer, chief executive of online wireless retailer LetsTalk.com, commenting in an article that says Britney Spears let Kevin Federline know she was breaking up with him via a U R Dumped text mess ( video on UTube.)
It was interesting to wake up this morning and find out that former NBC, AOL, Yahoo! broadband media exec Shawn Hardin's latest incarnation is as the newly re-loed Silicon Valley CEO of Web 2.0 browser company Flock.
Will Pate says: "Hardin has front-line expertise in technology-driven entrepreneurial ventures in addition to a business background with NBC and AOL. His creative and business experience spans Entertainment, Film, Television, Information Technologies, Mobile and Internet markets. He has been working at the intersection of media, technology, and business for over twelve years, including as a founding executive of NBC Television Network's Interactive Division, EVP & Group General Manager for NBCi, SVP for AOL Broadband and Head of Youth, Health & Games for the Yahoo! Media Group."
So it's another big guy goes to small company and has (hopefully) has big impact story, eh?
Somehow, this just doesn't feel the same as when Scoble went to Podtech...another big company to small play--this one feels different--like maybe Flock is hoping a guy with big media credentials will help them raise more $$-- and maybe Shawn is ready to run some Barcamps?
"It is the most interesting search experiences I've had since I first laid my eyes on Google about eight years ago."
--Robert Scoble, commenting on Riya's new Like.com, a photo-driven similarity search product created by Munjal Shah and team.
Susan sez: If I was a VC, I would have given tons of money to Riya--these are some of the smartest and most resilent people I have met in SV start up land. It is going to be fascinating to see if this shopping focused incarnation of their search algo catches on as the holiday shopping season ratchets up. Either way, I am sure there will be more instances of deployment of this very cool logic to drive visual shopping and more.
Longtime Riya friend Mike Arrington has the breaking news, tons more comments in the blogosphere. Nifty multimedia press release here.
And yes, this new product--and the parent company--are totally worth checking out in detail.
Nancy Pelosi will be the new speaker of the house--first woman ever-and the Dems are going to get a chance to prove they can get it right,
"The real opportunity for media, in this day and age, is ostensibly the interactive platform, not just online, but mobile and gaming. Basically, promise a way for content companies to get closer than ever to their audience, to build community around their audience, to learn from their audience so they can put out better professional content."
--Quincy Smith, new CBS Digital president, in a Reuters interview on how he'll make CBS successful through innovation and M&A.
- Business Week: Google to sell ads for newspapers--Owning the tools and the distribution and the platform--with 100 partners signed up.
- Paid Content: Quincy Smith in at CBS Digital; Larry Kramer out, but will stay and advise.
- The Polling Place Photo Project is a nationwide experiment in citizen journalism to capture, post and share photographs and document the local voting experience. Check it out!
- Calcanis: Need some morning gloating? Read this rant on newspaper circulation decline--classic Jason--"Come on people, this is really simple... wake up and accept the fact that 90% of your audience does not want a newspaper on their doorstep every day. Why these executives are so obsessed with dead trees is bizarre."
I'm starting to get emails from friends who are coming to the Bay area for Web 2.0 conference--I am not going to be attending this year--have some training classes this week, believe it or not.
BUT, if you want to get together, or have a cool evening event you want to invite me to, let me know--I know there are going to be lots of interesting friends in town and hope to see some of you--and I am around this weekend and next.
"If executives need lots of data before they feel comfortable making a decision, chances are they will not act until it is way too late. Don't get me wrong, data are extremely valuable. It's just that, if we insist on too much data, we will often miss significant changes on the horizon. This isn't just about analysis paralysis; it's much more insidious.
(snip)
... To avoid being blind-sided, we need to pay equal attention to stories and train ourselves to detect patterns in the stories, even if the data supporting the stories remains fragmentary. Stories are generally our first indicators that something really interesting is about to happen; something that data will only reveal to us in full force much, much later."
--John Hagel, writing on what he calls "the greatest obstacles standing in the way of executives as they seek to create and capture more value for their stakeholders."
(Via Matt MacAllister)
Irrestibly detailed article (not silly) on Mozilla lead Blake Ross and his new Parakey project in Spectrum, the IEEE journal.
Not only is Blake's insiration his mom, but Parakey sounds kick-ass--and worthy of lots o' patents.
Matt M has soon good comments on Blake and Parakey; so does Venture Beat and Richard MacManus--there's more here.
So Mike Arrington's the subject of one of those breathless trend-watch WSJ articles that says "Two years ago, Mr. Arrington was a surf bum in southern California."
The article is a hoot. Never mind that Mike is a lawyer, worked with Keith Teare, co-founded edgeio--the guy's really a slacker who stumbled into success --sez these two bozos.
LOL, what idiots these reporters must be.
Isn't this more proof old media has just lost its way?
Somehow, the reporters ponder, Mike Arrington has the magic juice that gets even the littlest starft-ups funded (this story reads like the oh-wow freshman piece for two high school newspaper editors hitting the big leagues) and has this amazed how did he make this happen? tone.
Given all the bloggers vs,. journalists hoopla around Mike recently, this silly piece scores one for the bloggers in my book.
"All I promise is to give my honest opinion every time I write, regardless of whether there is a conflict of interest or not."
-- TechCrunch founder Mike Arrington, writing about his POV on what he covers, and responding to feeling (being?) bashed.
